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The Authorship and early reception of A Conference about the next succession to the crown of England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Peter Holmes
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Communications
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The Historical Journal , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1980 , pp. 415 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Camden, W., History (London, 1675), p. 482Google Scholar; Bartoli, , Delle opere iv (Turin, 1825), vi, 299Google Scholar; More, H., Historia missionis Anglicanae (St Omers, 1660), p. 161Google Scholar; C. Dodd, Church history 11 (1739), 405 (rather doubtful about whether or not Persons wrote it); Butler, C., Historical memoirs of…Catholics (London, 1822), ii, 23Google Scholar; Krebs, R., Diepolitischepublizistikder Jesuiten (Halle, 1890), pp. 12, 107Google Scholar; for Lingard see Tierney as cited in note 4 below; McIlwain, C. H., The political works of James (Cambridge Mass., 1918), Introduction, appendix D.Google Scholar

2 Law, T. G., The Archpriest controversy (Camden Society, 1896–8), 1, 207, 11, 52, 64, 71, 108, 115, 132, 221 (and many of the printed books of the Appellants)Google Scholar; Wood, A., Athenae Oxoniensis (ed. Bliss, , London, 1815), ii, 71Google Scholar; Berington, J., The memoirs of Gregorio Panzani (Birmingham, 1793), 27 noteGoogle Scholar; Knox, T. F., The tetters and memorials of William Cardinal Allen (London, 1882), p. 390 noteGoogle Scholar; Law, T. G., A historical sketch (London, 1889), p. xcviiiGoogle Scholar; Taunton, E. L., The history of the Jesuits in England (London, 1901), p. 150.Google Scholar

3 J. Fisher, The answer unto the nine points (1625), p. 7; Plowden, C., Remarks on a book (Liège, 1794), p. 152Google Scholar; Oliver, G., Collections (London, 1845), p. 163. Cf. an eighteenth-century letter on the subject mentioning a mysterious deathbed denial of authorship by Persons, Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia vii, 70.Google Scholar

4 Tierney, M. A., Church history (London, 1840), iii, 31 ff.; a reply to this in The Tablet for 9 November 1844.Google Scholar

5 Pollen, J. H., ‘The question of Queen Elizabeth’s successor’, The Month, ci (1903), 526Google Scholar. The Verstegan thesis is followed by Rombauts, E., Richard Verstegan (Brussels, 1933)Google Scholar, chap, viii and Handover, P. M., Arbella Stuart (London, 1957), pp. 101–2.Google Scholar

6 Hicks, L., ‘Father Robert Persons, S.J. and the Book of Succession’, Recusant History, iv (1957–8), 126 ff.Google Scholar

7 Petti, A., ‘The life and writings of R. Verstegan’, London M.A. thesis (1957), pp. 202 ff.Google Scholar; Bossy, J., ‘The character of Elizabethan Catholicism’, Past and Present, xxi (1962), 50Google Scholar; Loomie, A. J., The Spanish Elizabethans (London, 1963), pp. 45 ff.Google Scholar; Clancy, T., Papist pamphleteers (Chicago, 1964), p. 64Google Scholar; McGrath, P., Papists and puritans (London, 1967), p. 272Google Scholar; Allison, A. F. and Rogers, D. M., A catalogue of Catholic books in English printed abroad or secretly in England 1558–1640 (London, 1968), art. 271Google Scholar; Milward, P., Religious controversies of the Elizabethan age (London, 1977), p. 115Google Scholar; Morey, A., The Catholic subjects of Elizabeth I (London, 1978), p. 124Google Scholar. See, however, for the view that Persons wrote the book alone, Stafford, H. G., James VI of Scotland and the throne of England (London, 1940), chap, iv, appendix II.Google Scholar

8 This paper is drawn largely from my unpublished Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, ‘The political thought of the Elizabethan Catholics’ (1976). It has benefited from the comments of my research supervisor, Professor G. R. Elton, and of my examiners, Mr Christopher Morris and Professor John Bossy.

9 Persons to N.T. (probably Henry Garnet), 24 May 1603, P.R.O., S.P. 14/1/84; British Library, Cotton Julius F VI, 146 ff.; Stonyhurst Archives, Coll. P 1, pp. 324–7.

10 Hicks, L., Letters and memorials of Persons (C.R.S., 39 London, 1942), pp. 289 ff.Google Scholar; Knox, , Letters and memorials of William Cardinal Allen (London, 1882), pp. 281 ff.Google Scholar

11 Hicks, ‘Father Robert Persons, S.J. and the Book of Succession’, Recusant History, iv (1957–8), 110–12; Pollen, J. H., ‘The question of Queen Elizabeth’s successor’, The Month cl (1903), 524–5.Google Scholar

12 P.R.O., S.P. 12/271/11–15; Westminster Cathedral Archives, B48/17; and see Hicks, Letters and memorials, p. 132, note 31, for notice of another copy.

13 See note 10 above.

14 See note 9 above.

15 Hicks, Letters and memorials §vii.

16 ‘id primum affirmo me eundem librum antequam ederetur attente perlegisse (quod et Cardinalis quoque Alanus alijque nonnulli viri praecipui nationis Anglicanae fecerunt)’, Westminster Cathedral Archives, AV/123; Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia ii, 21.

17 ‘quem me, caeterisque multis viris Catholicis petentibus ante biennium collegit de iure successionis regiae apud Anglos’, Englefield to the pope, 2 September 1596, P.R.O., 31/9/111, 330 ff. (transcript of Vatican Archives Borghese 1, 448), quoted in Stafford, James VI, chap, iv, appendix ii, who draws the same conclusion as I do.

18 Englefield to Philip II, 8 September 1596, Westminster Cathedral Archives, E 2, fo. 1, quoted in Tierney, Church history, p. xlviii.

19 Loomie, A. J., The Spanish Elizabethans (London, 1963), p. 48.Google Scholar

20 Pollen, J. H., ‘The question of Queen Elizabeth’s successor’, The Month, ci (1903), 526.Google Scholar

21 A. G. R. Petti, ‘The life and writings of R. Verstegan’, London M.A. thesis 1957, p. 240.

22 Gifford to T. Throgmorton, 15 June 1595, P.R.O., S.P. 12/252/661; cf. British Library, Cotton Caligula B VIII, fos. 305–5v 310v.

23 Cf. Pollen, The politics of the English Catholics (n.p., n.d., articles reprinted from The Month, 1902), vi, 5, n. 1.

24 See note 22 above; cf. Gifford to Robert Markham, 8 August 1596, Westminster Cathedral Archives A V/64.

25 Westminster Cathedral Archives B48/18; cf. Calendar of State Papers Scotland xiii, 1131, for a reference to an ‘original manuscript’, corrected with Persons’ own hand. The ‘original manuscript’ of the Conference mentioned in H.M.C., Report I, appendix, pp. 45 ff., is merely a copy of the printed book, now in the Archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, Mount Street, London.

26 Loomie, A. J.(‘Richard Stanyhurst in Spain’, Huntington Library Quarterly, xxviii (1965), 148) suggests that Richard Stanyhurst also helped in the composition of the Conference. His reasons are that Stanyhurst was in Spain at the time, and that in his letter to Aquaviva of 4 June 1594 Persons said that there was an Irishman knowledgeable on the question of the succession. The links in this chain of argument seem to me rather weak.Google Scholar

27 Loomie, A. J., ‘Spain and the English Catholic exiles, 1580–1604’, London Ph.D. thesis (1957), p. 345.Google Scholar

28 Pollen, J. H. (ed.), Unpublished documents (C.R.S. v, London, 1908), p. 263.Google Scholar

29 Meyer, A. O., England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth (trans. McKee, J. B., London, 1961), appendix xvii.Google Scholar

30 There was a priest named Alban Doleman who was an opponent of Persons, and the Appellant priests at the turn of the century accused Persons of attempting to father the Conference on him. Persons replied that Doleman’s talents were ‘known to be far inferior to such a labour’, and offered at different times several explanations for his choice of the pseudonym. Persons, A manifestation (1602), p. 51; Tierney, Church history, p. xlviii.

31 The earl of Essex was seriously upset by the declaration; see Collins, A., Sydney state papers (London, 1746), 1, 357.Google Scholar

32 See the very perspicacious remarks on the date of the book’s completion in Pollen, ‘The question of Queen Elizabeth’s successor’, The Month, ci (1903), 523–4.

33 Persons to Claudius Aquaviva, 4 June 1594, translation in Hicks,’ Father Robert Persons, S.J. and the Book of Succession’, Recusant History, iv (1957–8), 110–12; A. O. Meyer, England and the Catholic Church, p. 385.

34 On Philip II’s payment for the printing ofanother work by Persons cf. Loomie, A. J., ‘The authorship of “An advertisement…”‘, Renaissance News, xv (1962), 201–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf., perhaps, Meyer, England and the Catholic Church, p. 385. On the publishing activities of Verstegan, and on Conincx as printer, see Petti, A. G., ‘A bibliography of the writings of Richard Verstegan’, Recusant History, vii (1963–4), 82–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Westminster Cathedral Archives, A V/64, p. 210.

36 For reference to this correspondence, see note 11 above.

37 Ibid.; Cresswell’s letters of 13 August 1594, P.R.O. 31/9/111, fos. 319 ff. (transcript from Vatican Archives, Borghese 1, 448).

38 News from Spain and Holland (Antwerp, 1593), 21v ff.; cf. ‘Matters disclosed by Robert Barwys priest’, Cecil papers 26/5.

39 Clarke, W., A reply (London, 1603), p. 75.Google Scholar

40 Information from William Gifford to Rome, June 1595, P.R.O., 31/9/111, fo. 341 (transcript from Vatican Archives, Borghese 11, 448 b).

41 Calendar State Papers Ireland 1596–7, pp. 202–3. For copies arriving in England, see Peck, F., Desiderata curiosa (London, 1779), p. 169.Google Scholar

42 P.R.O., S.P. 12/252/661; cf. Gifford to Malvasia (the nuncio), 17 November 1595, P.R.O., 31/9/85 A, fo. 212 (transcript from Vatican Archives, Nunz. di Fiandra 9).

43 ‘Relacion del principio progresso y fin de la turbacion del Collegio yngles en Roma’, B.M., Add. MS 21203, fos. 7v, 8v; Agazzari to Persons, 27 August 1596, Tierney, Church history, III, appendix, lxxv.

44 Knox, The letters and memorials ofAllen, pp. 381–6; H.M.C., Calendar of the MSS of the marquis of Salisbury, VI, 233.

45 P.R.O. 31/9/85 A, fos. 220 ff. (transcript of Vatican Archives, Nunz. di Spagna 46); cf. 31/9/III, fos. 71 ff.

46 See note 16 above.

47 P.R.O. 31/9/111, fo. 262 (transcript from Vatican Archives, Borghese III, 124 g).

48 Persons, R., A manifestation (Antwerp, 1602), p. 50.Google Scholar

49 Information of John Cecil, March 1597, Lambeth Library, MS 661, fo. 90; H.M.C., Calendar of the Manuscripts of the marquis of Salisbury, vi, 382.

50 See note 12 above.

51 Persons to H. Constable, 3 August 1598, Inner Temple Library, MS 538.38, fo. 396v.

52 Persons to W. Creighton, 10 May (?) 1596, Knox, William Cardinal Allen, p. 383.

53 Persons to A. Standen, 8 September 1595, Stonyhurst Archives, Coll P I, fos. 310–11.

54 ‘ Razones por las quales los Catolicos de Ingalaterra desean que la senora Infanta de España se prefiera en la succession del Reyno a los demas pretensores’ (dated 1597), Westminster Cathedral Archives A VI, pp. 289 ff. Cf. Calendar of State Papers Simancas 1587–1603, pp. 636–7 (dated 1596); see Loomie, thesis, as above, p. 122.

55 Vatican Archives, Borghese III, vol. cIII; Westminster Cathedral Archives, A V/122; cf. Persons to Juan de Idiaquez, 2 September 1596, Calendar State Papers Simancas 1587–1603, p.634.

56 Chapter xii of the Borghese MS mentioned in the last note.

57 Westminster Cathedral Archives AVI/32; Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia 11 26; cf. Loomie, A. J., ‘Spain and the English Catholic exiles, 1580–1604’, London Ph.D. thesis (1957), p. 459.Google Scholar

58 Vatican Archives, Borghese III, 103, fos. 128v ff.

59 For references, see note 57 above.

60 Law, T. G., The Archpriest controversy (Camden Society, 1898), ii, 52.Google Scholar

61 Knox, William Cardinal Allen, p. 390.

62 A discovery of a counterfeit conference (Paris, 1600).Google Scholar

63 See my thesis, pp. 303–6; for a bibliography of Appellant books see Pollen, J. H., The institution of the Archpriest Blackwell (London, 1916), appendix; for other attacks on the Conference, see T. G. Law, Archpriest controversy, 11, 52 and index.Google Scholar

64 See, for example, Persons, R., A temperate ward-word (Antwerp, 1599), pp. 87–8.Google Scholar

65 L. Hicks, ‘Sir Robert Cecil, Father Persons and the succession’, Archivium Historicum Societatis Iesu xxiv (1955); A. J. Loomie,’ Philip II and the Stuart succession in England’, Revue Belge de philologie et d’histoire, XLIII (1965).

66 In the Conference Henry IV’s title to the throne of France had been briefly denigrated, which the Appellants were not slow to point out (T. G. Law, Archpriest controversy, 11, 64–5). Persons made overtures to Henry IV to remove his displeasure; see Lambeth Library, MS 2006, fo. 206–6v.

67 R. Persons, A manifestation (1602), fos. 49v–51v, 63–8; A brief apology (1601), fos. 188v–9.

68 Persons, A brief apology, fos. 188v–9.

69 Persons, A manifestation, fos. 51v, 63; cf. idem, , Warn-word (Antwerp, 1602), pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar

70 Cambridge University Library, MS Mm 1.43, fo. 8 (Baker MSS, printed in Peck, F., Desiderata curiosa (London, 1779), p. 169).Google Scholar

71 Calendar of Border Papers 1595–1603, 11, 102–4; Calendar of State Papers Scotland 1595–7, xii, 93, 100.

72 A. O. Meyer, England and the Catholic church, p. 386.

73 Calendar of Border Papers, as above, pp. 102–4.

74 Calendar State Papers Scotland 1595–7, p. 148.

75 Willson, D. H., King James VI and I (London, 1963), pp. 140–2Google Scholar; McIlwain, C. H., The political works of James I (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), introduction and appendix D; Calendar State Papers Scotland XII, 100, XIII, 167–8, 216, 356, 533.Google Scholar

76 P.R.O., S.P. 52/66/4 and 85/2/82; Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia vi, 28 (part of a draft); Westminster Cathedral Archives A VI/101.

77 Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia II, 64, fos. 196–6v (14 August 1600).

78 Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia III, 20, fos. 36–6v (10 August 1602).

79 Persons to N.T., see note 9 above; cf.’ Reasons to be suggested to His Majesty concerning the Jesuits’, Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia III, 41, fos. 86–7v.

80 Persons, in a letter to Cardinal Borghese of July 1603, however, described The true law of free monarchies as ‘piccolo, ma pestilentiale’, P.R.O. 31/9/112, fos. 136–7 (transcript of Vatican Archives, Borghese III, 124g.2); Clancy, T., Papist pamphleteers (Chicago, 1964), pp. 90–2.Google Scholar

81 Letter of 18 October 1603, Stonyhurst Archives, Anglia III, 36, fos. 74–77v.